Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Why are we seeing another “war”
with Gaza? I can think of several reasons. None of them have to do
with rockets. (See my Post of January 7, 2009, Rockets, Rockets,
Rockets)

Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are
facing an election in January and need an atmosphere of fear to
insure their re-election. (After all, it worked for George W. Bush.)
Israel's method of operation for years has been to provoke a
reaction and use that as an excuse to “defend” itself. Last
week, Israel assassinated the leader of Hamas, Ahmad Jaberi, his body
guard and a cameraman, by firing a rocket into their car just days
after Israel had reached a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Israel
expected a response and it
worked. After all, it worked four years earlier when rocket fire had
stopped for four months. Suddenly Israel invaded Gaza killing six
Palestinians. Hamas called off the cease fire and Israel get the war
it wanted.

In the past week, Hamas has launched a
thousand qassam rockets, weighing less than a hundred pounds each,
into territory taken from them by Israel. One crude rocket hit a
building and three innocent Israeli citizens were killed. Israel has
retaliated with round the clock bombardment which has resulted so far
(as of November 20th) in killing over 100 and wounding 860
Palestinians, mostly women and children. The Gaza hospitals are
running out of beds, drugs and supplies.

The media calls it a war. However, one
side has an army; 175,000 troops, 3,000 tanks and 786 fighter
aircraft. On the other side is Hamas with 12,000 volunteers at best,
ill trained and poorly equipped. However, Israel is in an uproar.
For the first time, Hamas has fired “long range” (40 mile)
rockets at Tel Aviv. Two rockets got through the Iron Dome, which
Israel got to test with 90 percent success. One fell into the sea and
the other in a field. But the psychological impact is enormous. If
suddenly Hamas can reach the center of Israel's business and
playground, nobody knows what effect that could have on investments,
tourism and Jews who might return to Israel for the good life?

I saw on the internet a placard carried
by an old man which read:

You

take my water
burn my olive trees
destroy my house
take my job
steal my land
imprison my father
kill my mother
bomb my country
starve us
humiliate us
BUT
I am to blame:
I shot a rocket
back.

When Israelis in the occupied
territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are
defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to
defend itself against the population they are crushing … You can't
defend yourself when you're militarily occupying someone else's
land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense.

So, add it up. Netanyahu
and Barak need election propaganda, the Iron Dome defense system
needs to be tested, Iran is too tough to tackle and the U.S. is
bogged down in re-election adjustments and debt crisis. Wow! What
better time could there be for Israel to do what it seems to do best.
Attack its neighbors, especially those who are unarmed and
defenseless.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Several years ago, the Christian leadership in Israel and Palestine
sent out a plea known as Kairos Palestine which said, “We
cry out from within the suffering in our country under the Israeli
occupation... We have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the
Palestinian people.”(1) They simply asked the Christians of
America to acknowledge what is happening to them and to notice that they
are being strangled to death by the ”acts on the ground” of
Israel's occupation.

Last winter, a dozen people of conscience published a response to
that plea called Kairos USA which said, we repent of our
silence and abuse of theology which continues to allow your
persecution unchallenged. They wrote:

Today, the churches of the Holy Land are calling us to stand with
them in their

nonviolent struggle. How can we do otherwise? … You cannot
silence the cry of the
oppressed nor suppress the human hunger for justice for all of
God’s children.(2)

I studied these documents in Atlanta. That was last month.
This month, I attended the Mountain Top Lecture Series at Amicalola
Falls State Park in North Georgia which featured Brian McLaren. I was
exited because I had read several of McLaren's books and knew his
passion for better understanding among people of different cultures
and religions. And he has a heart for peace for the Palestinians. In
his latest book, he wrote:

A distorted doctrine of chosen-ness tells many sincere but
misguided Christian Zionists that the Jews have been chosen by God
to own certain land without concern for the well-being of their
non-Jewish neighbors. As a result, these Christians fervently
support Israel in a Domination
Narrative, justifying the continued military occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza. They may even support the Purification Narrative
that inspires some Israeli settlers and political parties to drive
Palestinian Muslim and Christians from their homes, whether through
sudden expulsion or gradual colonization and appropriation.(3)

However, and this is my concern, during his lecture when he came to
the subject of chosen-ness, he mentioned the conflict between Israel
and Palestine only among several other conflicts. But, he used as his
primary illustration the Hutu/Tutsi massacres in Rwanda. He even
mentioned the horrible record of Christopher Columbus, both matters
safely tucked away in history. However, he did not mention
Israel's abuse of the Palestinians. I sat there in amazement,
thinking, this Zionist theology of chosen-ness is driving our foreign
policy, pulling us into a possible war with Iran and destroying our
relations with the Arab world. How can he not put this on the table?

To be fair, I think Brian McLaren is a genuine prophet of peace and
reconciliation. I marvelled at what he had to say and his passion
for understanding and acceptance of others. But, I hurt because of
what he did NOT say.

He referred in his book to the way of Jesus as “Peace, justice and
reconciliation.” However, I agree with Naim Ateek who says that
the formula must be justice, peace and reconciliation, and in that
order. I don't mean to single out McLaren, To be fair, as part of
the Mountain Top Lectures, Bart Ehrman did not talk about the plight
of the Palestinians, even when asked a question about Rapture
Theology, nor did Robin Meyers. A.J. Levine, if anything, was
defensive of the State of Israel and criticised Palestinian Christian
leaders for their resistance.

While we spent two days talking about being a better church, Israeli
rockets killed seven Palestinians in Gaza, including three children
and injured 30 to 40 more. While we were in church listening to an
emotional sermon about peace, Israeli bulldozers were destroying
another home in West Bank.

When will justice become the concern of the Christian leaders
in America?

I support what has become popularly known as the emerging church.
However, I wonder. Have we become just one more retail outlet for
selling a popular religion? When I asked about our having someone
like Mark Braverman, Norman Finklestein, Naim Ateek or a Miko Peled
to be our lecturer at the Mountain Top Series, I was quickly told by
a friend that we wouldn't get twenty people interested enough to come
and hear about justice for the Palestinians. He is probably right.
But then, I ask, are we only interested in that which is popular?

Self disclosure – I ask myself if I am disappointed because I am
genuinely concerned for the Palestinians or did I just want my ego
affirmed by a celebrity? Most everyone there knew that my passion is
justice for the Palestinians. I will probably never know. But either
way – while we talk, Israel bulldozes more houses and drives more
Palestinians into homelessness, uproots more olive groves, steals
more water, erects more road blocks and check points, and imprisons
more kids. Should that in itself not be enough to merit serious
attention when discussing “chosen-ness”?

Thomas L. Are

I preached for forty three years in the Presbyterian Church before retiring. If anyone would ever refer to me as a Liberation Theologian, I would be pleased. I started blogging several years ago to express my political and religious concern for justice, especially justice for the Palestinians.